The Truth About Balrogs

Appendix

(unrevised)

by Conrad Dunkerson

See below for the author's personal views on
the questions discussed here.

In this last installment of the series I will present a few further
passages about Balrogs which did not fit into the earlier texts and
some general comments.

What are the names of the Balrogs?

The five Balrog names which appear in the stories can all be found
in two passages;

"The Eldar named him Kosmoko or Kosomok(o), but 'tis a name that
fitteth their tongue no way and has an ill sound even in our own
rougher speech, said Elfrith [emended fmm Elfriniel].'
(In a list of names of the Valar associated with the tale of The Coming
of the Valar (I. 93) it is said that Melko had a son 'by Ulbandi'
called Kosomot; the early 'Qenya' dictionary gives Kosomoko = Gnomish
Gothmog, I.258."
BoLT2, Fall of Gondolin - Commentary ~2 'Entries in the Name-list'

"But Lungorthin Lord of Balrogs
on the mouth smote him, and Morgoth smiled"
LoB, The Second Version of the Children of Hurin (line 96)

Christopher comments a few pages after this second
passage that references to Gothmog 'Lord of Balrogs' were to be found
written shortly before and after this text. He suggests that
Lungorthin might thus be A Balrog Lord, while Gothmog was
still THE Lord of Balrogs. Alternatively, this could have
been a transitory idea for another name to be given to the character
elsewhere called Gothmog/Kosomot/Kosomoko/Kosmoko.

Gothmog and the different Quenya versions of the name are
translated variously as 'Voice of the Master' (for the Orcish origin),
'Dread Tyrant' or 'Terrible Enemy'.

Tolkien never provided a translation of 'Lungorthin', but it may
contain the Sindarin roots 'gor' = 'horror, violence' and 'thin' =
'grey'. The 'lun' element is very uncertain, but may be derived from
'lune' = 'blue' or 'lung' = 'heavy, grave, serious'.

What is the etymology of 'balrog'?

Tolkien gave a few different origins for 'balrog'. The earliest
suggests that it was Orcish in origin;

"Balrog is said to be an Orc-word with no pure Quenya equivalent:
'borrowed Malaroko-'"
LROW, The List of Names

Given that Tolkien indicated that Orcs often
borrowed and adapted words from other languages and the 'borrowed
Malaroko' comment above it seems likely that the Orcish term was meant
to be a modification of the earlier elvish Malaroko;

"Balrog GL defines Balrog as 'a kind of fire-demon; creatures and
servants of Melko'. With the article the form is i 'Malrog, plural i
'Malraugin. Separate entries give bal 'anguish' (original initial
consonant mb-), balc 'cruel'; and graug 'demon'. Qenya forms are
mentioned: arauke and Nalkarauke. In QL Malkarauke with other words
such as malkane 'torture' are given under a root MALA (MBALA) '(crush),
hurt, damage', but the relation of this to MALA 'crush, squeeze' (see
Olore Malle) was apparently not decided. There are also Valkarauke and
valkane 'torture', but again the relationship is left obscure."

There was also one further etymology given for
balrog after LotR had been completed;

"Note 28 (p. 390)
Some other derivatives are in Quenya: rukin 'I feel fear or
horror' (constructed with 'from' of the object feared); ruhta-
'terrify'; rukima 'terrible'; rauko and arauko < *grauk-) 'a
powerful, hostile, and terrible creature', especially in the
compound Valarauko 'Demon of Might', applied later to the
more powerful and terrible of the Maia servants of Morgoth. In
Sindarin appear, for instance, raug and graug, and the com-
pound Balrog (equivalents of Q rauko, etc.); groga- 'feel terror';
gruitha 'terrify'; gorog (< *guruk) 'horror'."
WotJ, Quendi and Eldar

Here the 'bal' part of the name is changed from a
connection with Quenya 'NGWAL' to relate to the same root found in
'Valar' (the 'Powers'), thus arriving at the apparently final meaning
given in Silm; 'Demon of Might'.

What is the plural form of the word 'balrog'?

This might seem a simple question as Tolkien consistently used
'balrogs';

"Balrogs they were named by the Noldor in later days."
MR, Later Quenta Silmarillion - Chapter 3 (Commentary ~18) pg 165

However, linguists are quick to note that an 's'
ending does not indicate a plural in Sindarin and thus the word
'balrogs' might best be considered an 'anglicized' plural rather than
the actual word which the elves would have used. If the older orcish
origin for 'balrog' is assumed we might still guess that 'balrogs' is
the correct plural, but there is nothing to indicate that this was
Tolkien's intent or that 's' indicated a plural in any orcish dialect
(of which Tolkien provided very little).

A possible entry for what the 'un-anglicized' Sindarin form might
have been is;

"And in Utumno he multiplied the race of evil spirits that followed
him, the Umaiar, of whom the chief were those demons the Elves
afterwards named the Balrogath."
MR, Annals of Aman - Section 2 (AAm* ~30) page 79

A common objection to 'Balrogath' as a plural is
the belief that Tolkien used '-ath' to indicate a 'collective' term
for the race in question and thus that 'balrogath' should be
translated as 'the balrog race' rather than simply 'balrogs'.
However, in english the collective term for a race can be denoted
simply by adding an 's', as shown in one of Tolkien's own
translations;

Ernil i Pheriannath = Prince of the Halflings

Further, Tolkien actually used '-ath' as a simple
plural for many words (e.g. 'ar-gon-ath' meaning 'king stones'),
including particular races;

"1601 Many Periannath migrate from Bree, and are granted land beyond
Baranduin by Argeleb II."
LotR, Appendix B - The Third Age

Here 'periannath' translates as 'hobbits', but
clearly in the sense of 'more than one hobbit' rather than in
reference to the 'hobbit race'.

As such it is possible that 'balrogath' was the common plural form
of 'balrog', but this is far from universally accepted. Linguists
then extrapolate that the correct term may have been something like
'balroeg' based upon the way Tolkien pluralized other Sindarin words.
The form 'belryg' is also sometimes suggested, though this is
considered a non-standard pluralization (similar to the plural of
'mouse' in English being 'mice' rather than the more common 's'
pluralization, which would yield 'mouses').

The Quenya plural is given as Malraugin, Malarauke, and finally
Valarauki along with other such slight variations in line with the
evolving singular Quenya form.

Personal Views

Finally, in order to aid in evaluating how my own views may have
biased the earlier essays I present an account of my personal beliefs
on each issue below. Note that, while the essays concentrated on
textual references and the relative support extant for various
possibilities, the summations below are entirely my personal aesthetic
preferences, even where I find these to be at odds with the majority
of the textual evidence, and my guesses as to what Tolkien's
intent was. Obviously, these should not be considered in any way the
same sort of thing as the factual summaries.

Could Balrogs speak? And why would we even ASK such a
question?

It seems to me that Balrogs should have been able to speak, but
likely seldom did so. The possibility that they used telepathic
communication seems quite plausible and fitting to me given that they
would generally be communicating with Orcs and other 'slaves', who
had numerous languages that it might well be beneath the Balrogs'
arrogance to study. In truth I doubt Tolkien gave the matter much
thought and he probably intended that they could and did speak
normally.

How many Balrogs were there?

While all the known texts save one note indicate numerous Balrogs
I think Tolkien's late idea of a small number is considerably better.
Vast legions of Balrogs similar to the one described in LotR would
have been an utterly overwhelming force. I think Tolkien would have
retained the idea of a limited number if he'd had time to completely
rewrite the mythology to work it into the existing stories. The most
difficult area to revise would be the numerous Balrogs slain during
the Fall of Gondolin - but this could be simplified down to the two
best known cases (Ecthelion killing Gothmog and Glorfindel killing
another in the famed battle on the peak) and possibly one to three
others (most probably Tuor slaying one, Tuor and Ecthelion slaying
one together and/or the men of Rog slaying one). Likewise, while
most of the texts indicate that 'some few' Balrogs survived I think
the Moria Balrog would probably have been made the ONLY survivor had
the overall number of Balrogs been reduced in a revised
mythology.

What IS a Balrog?

Again, while the majority of texts had them as constructed
entities the late adaptation to fallen Maiar seems clearly
preferable. The dual nature of fire and shadow introduced in LotR
seems quite firmly established and was consistently used thereafter.
As such it seems very likely that Tolkien would have kept the 'Maiar
of fire and shadow' nature for the Balrogs.

Was the Balrog of Moria under Sauron's command?

I've never been able to get a handle on this one. I can see good
reasons to believe either side of the argument. The Balrog
apparently stirred at the same time Sauron was reforming (and
possibly in response to this) and yet there is no indication of
cooperation between Mordor and Moria, even when we see Orcs from both
locations forced into a single band fleeing pursuit. It seems most
likely to me that the Balrog was as yet operating independently, but
that it would have wound up serving Sauron in time.

Can Balrogs change their shapes?

While the seemingly mutable appearance of the Moria Balrog is
suggestive, I prefer to view this as a limited flexibility of form
and/or alterations only in seeming due to the aura and power of the
Balrog. That they should be unable to assume fair forms or truly
change their shape seems most consistent with the limitations of
Morgoth and Sauron and would also seem (to me) consistent with their
apparent inability to reform after having their bodily forms
killed.

Do Balrogs have wings, and can they fly?

While I prefer the image of a winged Balrog, the idea that they
could fly would require a significant reshaping of the mythology. If
we had some idea of how Tolkien would have accomplished that it might
have been preferable, but given the state of the final texts it seems
easier to keep the Balrogs land bound. My guess is that Tolkien was
so struck with the idea of a winged Balrog when it first occurred to
him during the drafts of LotR that he thereafter used IMAGERY
suggestive of winged (and flying) Balrogs in LotR and the 'Hithlum
passage', but deliberately refrained from directly stating the actual
existence of wings or flight (which are usually tied
together) because these would conflict with too much of the existing
mythology.

Thanks are due to the regulars of alt.fan.tolkien and
rec.arts.books.tolkien for their extensive discussions on these
issues, from which much of the material in these essays was derived.
I have also extensively reviewed similar threads on numerous other
Tolkien discussion boards and, of course, the texts themselves to find
additional details. My goal in writing these essays has been to
present as much material as I could possibly find on all sides of the
issues - in hopes both of presenting at least one thing that each
reader had not seen or considered before and of combating the all too
common tendency in such summations to present only one side or the
other. In the end, the 'Truth about Balrogs' is that there is ample
room in Tolkien's descriptions of them to justify the myriad forms and
natures different readers have seen therein.